Published December 2004

Snohomish marketing
mission gets under way

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

Snohomish, long known as the “Antique Capital of the Northwest,” has a message for companies seeking to relocate or expand their enterprises: “This small city means big business.”

In September, the city’s Economic Development Committee put the finishing touches on a marketing package aimed at attracting retailers and capitalizing on Boeing’s decision to assemble its 7E7 jetliner in nearby Everett. The catalyst for such a project: the city’s financial bottom line.

“In 2005, sales tax will be the number-one revenue driver for the city, with utilities second and property tax third,” city Mayor Liz Loomis said, noting that it will be the first time in the city’s history that sales tax revenue exceeds property tax.

Generating a healthy sales tax to fund city services means generating economic development, and the marketing package is a positive step toward achieving that goal by advertising all the city has to offer, Loomis said.

But first, the Economic Development Committee had to get a handle on which elements to highlight, so they went to the source itself, asking businesses that had moved to or expanded in Snohomish what they appreciated about this community of 8,500 residents located along the banks of the Snohomish River.

That outreach revealed three emerging themes, Loomis said: the city’s quality-of-life amenities, its convenient location to state highways and interstates, and the “can-do attitude of City Hall.”

“We knew that those were the (themes) we needed to capitalize on,” Loomis said.

The result was a marketing package that includes information on the model permit system the city began implementing this year, investments in ongoing infrastructure improvements, upcoming plans to expand and upgrade Snohomish School District facilities, the city’s varied recreational opportunities and its proximity to the Everett Boeing plant.

“Snohomish offers the full-meal deal. It’s live here and work here,” said Loomis, a Snohomish small-business owner herself.

The package also offers readers testimonials from businesses that have benefited from doing business in Snohomish, including:

• Soundair Aviation Services LLC, a supplier of parts and services to the commercial aviation industry, which relocated from Woodinville to Snohomish’s Bickford Avenue Corridor in 2003.
• Pinnacle Consulting Group, an industrial engineering firm, which relocated to Snohomish from Woodinville in 1998.
• Designer’s Warehouse, which over the years has expanded its Snohomish furniture stores to include Heritage Square, Designer’s Emporium and Bramble.

And then the package includes information on three geographic areas of Snohomish that prospective businesses and developers might find attractive — the Historic Business District, Avenue D and the Bickford Avenue Corridor — because they already are zoned appropriately and have infrastructure planned or under way, Loomis said.

In early September, the city mailed the marketing package to 26 commercial real estate agents and developers, which led to 12 discussion meetings, Loomis said. “We want to try and strike a balance between good-paying jobs and retail businesses. We’re now putting together a list of second- and third-tier providers to the 7E7 project,” she said.

“It has really been a grass-roots, community effort,” she said of the professionally styled marketing package, which, thanks to in-kind contributions of time and talent, was created for only about $7,000 — the cost of printing.

For more information on the city’s marketing package, contact Snohomish Assistant Planner Daryl Bertholet at 360-568-3115, Ext. 305, or send e-mail to bertholet@ci.snohomish.wa.us.

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